Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 6 June 2017

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 6 June 2017

::National::

India says it has signed the agreement for protection of climate

• India rejected U.S. President's allegation that it had joined the Paris climate agreement for a large financial incentive.
• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj described the allegation as “unreal” and said India did not join the agreement for “financial greed.”
• We signed the agreement for our commitment to protection of climate,” Ms. Swaraj said, explaining the reasons for India joining the agreement.
• “Worship of forests, worship of rivers, worship of mountains continue even now in India. These actions are part of India’s ethos that are five thousand years old. These are all heritage of India.
• That is why I am rejecting the allegations completely and that is why India will continue to remain in the Paris agreement framework, whether the U.S. continues in it or not,” she said.
• Ms. Swaraj also flagged the growing focus on H-1B visas in the U.S. as an Indian concern, and said the government was alert to the risks on this front. “Since 2004 a cap has been in place for 65,000 visas.
• There are no changes in the lottery process and in visas for our Ph. D students; but, yes, we have concerns.
• I want to assure the country that we are in touch with U.S. Congress members and the Trump administration so that no amendments are brought to the law so that Indian interests are not hurt.”
• The External Affairs Minister said that as of now, there were no plans of a meeting between Mr. Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the SCO summit scheduled in Astana for June 8 and 9.
• “We are willing for talks on all issues. Second, talks should be held between two parties. Third, terror and talks will not go ahead together — these are our three pillars.
• Pakistan needs to create humane conditions for facilitating humanitarian ties with India. I myself went for the Heart of Asia summit, but within a week we were given the attack on Pathankot,” she said.

Decision of West Asian countries to cut all ties with Qatar would not impact India

• The government and energy officials said that the decision by seven West Asian countries, led by Saudi Arabia, to cut all ties with Qatar would have “no impact” on Indian interests.
• While most analysts say the move will not have an immediate effect, there will be repercussions for India too if the tensions continue and differences are not resolved.
• To begin with, India has tried to maintain a balance in the region, given the immense stakes and has traditionally stayed out of the “Shia-Sunni”, “Arab-Persian” or “Wahabbi-Salafi” divides thus far.
• With Qatar now estranged from Saudi Arabia and its allies, a further fragmenting West Asia will require even more deft diplomacy to keep these ties untouched by the tensions.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Qatar and received Emir Al-Thani in 2016 and has also forged very close strategic partnerships with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are crucial to his outreach in the region.
• India sources more than half of its energy import needs from countries in the Persian Gulf. Six million Indians live and work in West Asia and they sent home about $63 billion last year.
• Energy imports may not be affected immediately, unless the Gulf countries follow through with sanctions.
• However, as in the case of Yemen, Libya, Lebanon and other countries, any tensions in the region have an immediate impact on thousands of Indian workers.
• In Qatar in particular, there are 6,00,000 Indian workers, many of them on projects related to the 2022 FIFA world cup. Several Indian companies such as L&T have won contracts in constructing stadiums.
• In addition, India has significant trade ties with the country (Qatar is India’s 19th biggest trading partner, with about $9 billion in trade), though its trade ties are much stronger with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• After Mr. Modi’s visits in the region, India had hoped for considerable investments from both the UAE and Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Funds.
• Besides cutting off diplomatic ties, the Saudi coalition has also decided to cancel Qatar Airways flights to their countries. This will affect Indian passengers who want to use Doha as a hub to get to other destinations in the Gulf.
• Saudi Arabia and the UAE are important partners for India on counter-terrorism cooperation and intelligence sharing.
• Yet it can’t be denied that together with Qatar, these countries have supported extremist groups that now control parts of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
• Saudi Arabia now accuses Qatar of supporting IS and Al-Qaeda, washing its hands of its own previous support to rebels. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on the global war on terror.

India in group of nations having their own indigenous cryogenic engine technology

• India leapfrogged into a select group of nations having their own indigenous cryogenic engine technology, when the ISRO successfully launched its heaviest launch vehicle, GSLV MkIII-D1, and placed the country’s heaviest satellite till date, GSAT-19, into a precise orbit.
• The GSAT-19, a communication satellite, expected to enhance India’s communication infrastructure, was placed into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee 170 km and apogee 35,975 km.
• The satellite weighs 3,136 kg. This successful launch will enable India to launch 4-tonne class satellites from India. These were earlier launched from launch pads abroad.
• ISRO has been trying to master development of an indigenous cryogenic for decades and has used indigenous cryogenic engines on earlier GSLV flights but modelled mainly on Russian design.
• On this GSLV, no technological element was borrowed or adapted from any other space organisation.
• The GSAT-19 carries a Ka/Ku-band high throughput communication transponders. It also carries a Geostationary Radiation Spectrometer (GRASP) payload to monitor and study the nature of charged particles and the influence of space radiation on satellites and their electronic components.
• The spacecraft will open up a lot of new vistas in the field of Internet connectivity, broadband connectivity.
• The successful launch of the GSLV MkIII- D1 also opens up business opportunities for ISRO.
• Two launches are coming up, which will however, happen from Ariane in French Guiana. The first one scheduled for June 28, will be the GSAT 18, a 3.3 tonne satellite, and the second one will be a 5.8 tonne satellite.
• Work is on to launch two approved missions — Aditya-L1 and Chandrayaan-II — in the next two years.

313 species of animal and 186 of plants discovered in the country last year

• On World Environment Day, India has 499 reasons to cheer: 313 species of animal and 186 of plants have been discovered from various areas of the country last year.
• Animal Discoveries 2016, New Species and Records , brought out by the Zoological Survey of India on Monday, and Plant Discoveries 2016 , by the Botanical Survey of India, bring the glad tidings.
• Of the new animal species, 258 are invertebrates and 55 vertebrates. As many as 97 species of insects, 27 of fish, 12 species of amphibians, 10 of Platyhelminthes, nine of Crustacea and six of reptiles have been discovered and described by the scientists.
• There are 61 species of moths and butterflies (order Lepidoptera) and 38 of beetles (Coloeptera).
• Most of the new species were from the four biological hotspots of the country — the Himalayas, the Northeast, the Western Ghats and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Animal Discoveries 2016 says that for the first time, the number of animal species in the country, including protozoa, has crossed one lakh — 1,00,693 is the exact count.
• Plant Discoveries 2016 says that along with 186 new species, scientists have discovered seven new genera, four subspecies and nine new varieties from India, taking the number to 206.
• The geographical distribution of the new plant species reveals that most discoveries were made in the Western Ghats (17%), followed by the Eastern Himalayas (15%), the Western Himalayas (13%), the Eastern Ghats (12%) and the west coast (8%).

International

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates isolated Qatar

• Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s new approach to the region, have seized the chance to isolate Qatar, analysts said.
• Gas-rich Doha, which has long exercised an independent streak in its foreign policy, last month denied comments which appeared on its official news agency questioning U.S. hostility towards Iran.
• Qatar blamed hackers for a string of explosive remarks attributed to its Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani after Mr. Trump visited Saudi Arabia, its giant neighbour.
• The reputed remarks were a slap in the face to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, Sunni monarchies which have embraced Mr. Trump and his harder line against Shia-dominated Iran.
• Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Bahrain and Egypt all severed diplomatic ties with Doha.
• The Islamist group was founded in Egypt about 90 years ago and has spread throughout the region.
• Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE all declared it a “terrorist group” after a Brotherhood government, led by Mohamed Morsi, won democratic elections in Egypt before being overthrown by the military in 2013.
• Qatar-backed Mr. Morsi in a dispute that led Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to withdraw their Ambassadors from Doha for several months in 2014. Doha, nonetheless, has continued to shelter many leaders of Mr. Morsi’s Brotherhood.
• The campaign aims to force non-Arab states to take sides and “persuade the Trump administration to come down hard on Qatar because of its refusal to join the anti-Iranian Saudi bandwagon and its ties to Islamist and militant groups.
• Qatar is also home to the former leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, who has lived in exile for several years in Doha.
• Qatar has been criticised for supporting Islamist rebels in Syria, and in 2013, the Afghan Taliban opened a Doha office.

Nepal has signed an agreement with China to build the largest hydroelectric plant

• Nepal has signed an agreement with a Chinese company to build the largest hydroelectric plant in the impoverished landlocked country, which suffers from a chronic energy shortage.
• Nepal’s Energy Minister signed the agreement for the China Gezhouba Group Corporation to build the long-mooted 1,200 megawatt Budhi-Gandaki hydroelectric project.
• The agreement was signed at the Prime Minister’s residence, in the presence of outgoing Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong.
• Estimates put the project cost at $2.5 billion. A financing agreement will be signed later.
• Water-rich Nepal has a mountain river system that could make it an energy-producing powerhouse, but instead it imports much of its electricity from neighbouring India.
• Experts say it could be generating 83,000 megawatts, but its total installed generation capacity currently stands at less than 2% of that.
• Demand for electricity has long outstripped supply in Nepal due to chronic under-investment and inefficiencies in the power network. The result has been crippling for domestic industry and deterred foreign investment.
• Crucial infrastructure development has flagged in the years of political paralysis that followed the end of the Maoist insurgency in 2006 and the overthrow of the monarchy two years later.
• India and China have vied for influence in the small country, with both pumping money into Nepal through large-scale infrastructure projects.
• The CGGC is currently building three smaller hydropower plants in Nepal and has completed another one, though critics have complained that the projects have consistently run over time and over budget.

Business and Economy

Business activity in the services sector picked up pace in May

• Business activity in the services sector picked up pace in May, driven mainly by an increase in new business and an easing of input costs, according to a survey.
• The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 52.2 in May from 50.2 in April. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in business activity while one below 50 denotes a contraction.
• The pick-up in service sector growth seen mid-way through the first quarter suggests that GDP could expand at a faster rate should growth momentum be maintained in June, though there are downside perils to this.
• It said service providers hired additional staff in May to cope with the greater workload and that the rate of jobs growth accelerated to the fastest in almost four years in that month.

RBI says PCA does not constrain normal banking operations for the public

• The RBI said its prompt corrective action (PCA), initiated in the case of some public sector banks with high NPAs, is a supervision tool and does not constrain normal banking operations for the public.
• The Reserve Bank has put Dena Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and UCO Bank, under the PCA in view of their mounting non-performing assets.
• RBI’s statement comes in the backdrop of “some misinformed communication” circulating in some sections of media as well as social media platforms, about the PCA framework, it said.

Contribution of India to the overall U.S. trade deficit is too low

• India Inc. has told the U.S. government that contribution of India to the overall U.S. trade deficit is too low to create any significant adverse impact on the American economy.
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has also said: “In light of the large market share that U.S. products have in the Indian market, it is clear that the balance of trade issue that is perceived is not due to a market access problem.”
• This development assumes significance as the $24.3 billion goods trade deficit that the U.S. had with India in 2016 may prominently figure in the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump.
• While the Trump administration may also take up its concerns over the protracted negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Investment Treaty, New Delhi would raise issues such as visa curbs and non-tariff barriers of the U.S. affecting India’s exports.
• The Executive Order sought an ‘Omnibus Report’ from the U.S. Commerce Secretary and the USTR (in consultation with other U.S. government departments/agencies) within 90 days on ‘Significant Trade Deficits’.
• Thus, India’s share in overall U.S. trade deficit is too insignificant to cause any adverse impact on the U.S. economy.”
• As against this, China’s contribution to the overall trade deficit of the U.S. during 2011-2015 was 43.9% (average), while that of Japan was 9.4%. Germany (8.1%), Canada (4.4%), Mexico (8.2%) and Saudi Arabia (3.5%) were higher, the CII showed.
• The CII said though the U.S. is among the few countries that India has a trade surplus with, this must be put in context.

Click Here for Old Current Affairs Archive

This is a Part of Online Coaching Programme for UPSC Exam

Buy Printed Study Material for UPSC PRELIMS EXAM

Join Test Series for IAS (Pre.) Exam